On Thursday, October 27, 2016, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont hosted the fourth and final event in the “Community Speaks” series, in partnership with Power 98 FM and V101.9 FM of Beasley Media Group.

The topic of the discussion was “Domestic Violence: What is a women’s network of support & healing?” The event was free and open to the public, held in the Bank of America Community Space at the new Goodwill Opportunity Campus in west Charlotte. Francene Marie Morris and Tonya Rivens hosted the event.

Panelists discussed what we need to do to empower the community to become more involved and engaged in combating domestic violence.

“Reporting it is a place that we can start, and learning what are our laws here in North Carolina, and what are we legally obligated to do to protect those who need our help,” said Hannah Arrowood of Present Age Ministries. “We can respond all day long, but if we don’t start putting measures in place to prevent it, we’re going to always be responding.”

“Our goal is to teach young girls and young women what the early warning signs are of psychological and emotional abuse, which is what our daughter was subjected to,” said Ron Kimble of the Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage. “We invite you to join us as we embark on this journey.”

“My goal is to always help people align with their own personal power, and I think that people don’t know their own personal power and they allow themselves to be led,” said Gina Spriggs.

As the event closed, the panel reflected on how to help those who are victims of domestic violence.

“We want to speak hope and speak life into their lives and help them understand that they are more than what has happened to them,” said Hannah Arrowood. “For us, it’s really giving them opportunities to overcome these things that they’ve dealt with and in doing so, you help to not only change their lives and their families’ lives, but you help to change the community, because you’re changing the mindset of the culture and what’s accepted.”

For more information on these organizations and what they’re doing in the fight against domestic violence, please visit their websites: